BILLBOARD TRACKING WEEK

KOREAN STANDARD TIME (KST)
Saturday 13:00 (1pm) to Friday 12:59PM KST

EASTERN STANDARD TIME (EST)
Friday 12AM EST to Thursday 11:59PM EST

Charts are refreshed every Tuesday on Billboard.com (during weeks with Monday holidays, chart will update on Wednesday instead).
The top 100 songs are featured on Billboard.com, while the complete 200-title rankings are visible on Billboard Pro, which is a Billboard subscription-based service.
Both charts calculate Worldwide Streams and Download Sales​.

BILLBOARD
​Billboard is a record chart mainly in the United States and Japan, ranking the most popular music weekly based on either streams, sales, radio plays, or all three. Billboard also has global and other country charts. The Billboard charting is objective evidence of an artist's audience. The Billboard charts have long been a who’s who of all the biggest names in music.

GENERAL GUIDE
Longevity
While the first week is the most crucial and strongest tracking, the following weeks are equally important. Entering the chart is one thing, staying long inside the chart is another.
Do not use VPN! When buying or streaming, use of a VPN invalidates your purchase/stream.

BILLBOARD 200
✩ Album chart based on streams + digital / physical album sales in the United States.
✩ 1 physical/digital album sale = 10 track sales = 1,250 premium streams = 3,750 free streams

BILLBOARD GLOBAL 200
✩ Singles chart based on streams and digital sales globally.
✩ 1 track sale = 200 premium streams = 900 free streams

BILLBOARD GLOBAL EXCL. US
✩ Singles chart based on streams and digital sales globally except USA.
✩ 1 track sale = 250 premium streams = 1,125 free streams

BILLBOARD ARTIST 100
✩ Artist chart based on combined Hot 100, Billboard 200, and Social 50 chart performance.

BILLBOARD TOP ALBUM SALES
✩ Album chart based on pure sales in the United States.

BILLBOARD TOP CURRENT ALBUM SALES
✩ Album chart based on pure sales in the United States, but without catalog titles.

BILLBOARD WORLD DIGITAL SONG SALES
✩ Singles chart based on digital sales of songs under the World Music category in the United States.
​
BILLBOARD JAPAN HOT 100
✩ Singles chart based on radio and sales in Japan.

BILLBOARD K-POP 100
✩ Singles chart based on downloads, streaming (VIBE only), radio, and TV data in South Korea.

​​PHYSICAL ALBUM PURCHASE GUIDE (USA & PR)

General guide:
✩ Limit your purchase to 4 albums at max per transaction.
✩ If buying more than 4, split the transaction. Recommended to buy from other stores or use different accounts and card/payment.
✩ Make sure the store you are ordering from counts on Billboard.
✩ Make sure the album is USA Version.
✩ Your album will count on Billboard upon shipment, not when ordered.
✩ Must be shipped to a USA address.
​
Offline buying (Target, Walmart, etc)
✩ Limit your purchase to 4 albums at max per transaction.
✩ Please buy album in stores to strengthen first-week sales.
✩ Cash-basis payment is recommended if doing multiple transactions.

DIGITAL PURCHASING GUIDELINES (USA & PR)

​Notes:
✩ SKZ Shop and iTunes are the most recommended platform.
✩ Unique purchases remove the risk of sales getting filtered out. It is highly recommended, especially if buying multiple copies, that you have your friends/family purchase on your behalf.
✩ As much as possible, make your identity unique every time. Do not use the same details/email/account especially if buying multiple times on a single platform. Recommended that you buy from different platforms.

​NOTE: Luminate; the data collection company the tracks for Billboard can not determine a free trial premium account from a purchased one, & Billboard has confirmed that they are counted the same!

DO NOT USE A VPN ​

General guide:
Before making any purchase, make sure to read the guide first in order to make sure your purchases count.
✩1 physical album = 1 digital album = 10 digital tracks
If you can still buy a physical copy (max of 4 per transaction) from your local record store such as Target, please do!

If buying on iTunes:
✩ Limit buying to 1 copy/card/week
✩Buy Title Track first then buy/complete the album, if you can’t complete the album, buy as many individual tracks as you can.
✩ Do not gift the song directly using iTunes as it does not count on Billboard.
✩ If using iTunes + Apple Music, “delete downloads” on Apple Music after buying so your streams would count.
✩ Do not use VPN
✩ If you have already purchased the album/songs before, you can no longer repurchase them. What you can do is create another Apple ID; you can use the same card (that you have used in the past tracking period) again this week once.
​
If buying on other digital stores:
✩ Stray Kids Shop, Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon, 7digital
✩ Limit buying to 1 copy / account / platform PER EMAIL!
✩ Make sure to download the song/album until it says “0 (zero).”
✩ Your purchase will only count on Billboard once you have downloaded it.
✩ If you would like to buy more than 1, make sure to use another account with a different email, if you can change payment methods.
✩ Recommended that you buy from different platforms.

Source: Billboard Charts Legend Luminate FAQ

It was just announced that starting this month (May 2023) Billboard will now include stream data from FLO, a K-streaming App. The data collected by Luminate from Dreamus Company (the company the runs FLO) will be used in the aggregation for Billboard’s "Global 200" and "Global 200 Excl. US" as well as the "South Korea Songs" chart!

BE SURE YOU ARE PARTICIPATING IN

​TRENDING TAGS ON TWEET FOR BILLBOARD HOT TRENDING EVERY WEEK